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Wireless APs in Homebrew Coffee Shops?
An anonymous reader writes "Having seen lots of complaints about the overpriced T-Mobile Wireless APs in Starbucks ($10/hr) got me thinking about setting up a wireless AP for the small, family-owned coffeeshop in my town under the tip jar model. I'm assuming ~$100 for the router, ~$500 for a PC to use to control quotas (to prevent over-zealous Kazaa users, block spammers and script kiddies and other would-be abusers) - but what software should I be using? Do enough people have 802.11a/g cards that it would be worth it to invest in that rather than an 802.11b router?" Has anyone considered making a Linux distribution for use by cybercafes, to handle wireless access and anything else such an outfit might need?
"Since this is a medium (50,000-ish) size town, and pretty much everyone in the coffee shop is a regular, would a tip jar model work? I'm figuring suggest a donation - what should I set that at?
Finally, keep in mind that the owner is not a geek - I'd be doing this when not studying (I'm a college student), so this would be set up over the summer, and most of the maintenance would be done on the weekends and/or via SSH.
Any other thoughts would be appreciated."
I don't get it. Why is the "Ask Slashdot" questions always stupid? If you are capable of running your own business it seems like you are capable at doing your own research instead of going to a bunch of people who will just "shoot from the hip".
"Linux distribution for use by cybercafes?" What kind of insane crap is that? Yes. we need yet another distribution that won't be maintained properly. What is wrong with getting RedHat or Debian or SuSE and putting your cafe's logo on the desktop. If that's all you actually need.
Also a computer to manage your wireless network isn't going to cost you $500. You've obviously not done any research what-so-ever.
I don't blame you, but I blame whoever decided to move your post up to the front page of the site. Of course 100 morons will throw in their 2 cents to this post and feed you tons of misinformation, you should probably ignore all the "answers" and move on.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
no you're not an idiot at all are you?